Yeah, I'll say it. Resident Evil 5 is one of the greatest co-op action games of all time. It's Resident Evil 4, but with your buddy controlling Ashley, if Ashley had a gun and thought it was really funny to yell 'come on! come on! hurry!' as you're getting swarmed by Lickers or kung-fu klobbered by the one and only Albert Wesker.
Rezzy 5 was one of the first video games I played with my girlfriend (now fiancé), which is really a testament to its beginner-friendly-while-still-being-entertaining nature. If you've got a friend who's OK with the kind of horror you can shoot in the face, this is your next game.
I won't deny that the depiction of Africa and its people gets questionable - pretty much from the get-go, but especially in the marshlands. I'm in a position of privilege where it's extremely unlikely that there'll ever be a game that uncritically uses stereotypes and centuries of fearmongering as the basis for a story where a foreign soldier goes a-blasting through my country, even if that soldier has a remarkably socialist perspective on capitalism. So, to be blunt, your mileage may vary.
Sheva: Wouldn't you rather be back in America than a place like this?
Chris: Not necessarily. Some people might think America has its own dark side.
Sheva: That doesn't sound very patriotic.
Chris: I'm just a realist. It's a capitalist society. Not everyone is cut out for that kind of constant pressure. Sure, there are opportunities to be had, but at what price? You gain, someone else loses.
When a remake inevitably comes, I hope Capcom take the good aspects (Wesker, shady companies exploiting the land, the Lost in Nightmares DLC), and ditch the bad. They'd better not touch that boulder-punching scene, though. It's perfect.